re: Arsenal 2013/2014 Season Long Thread

Watching the as live replay. first half just ended.

starters: fab, jenks, baccy, per, gibbs, arteta, ramsey, theo, rosicky, ryo, giroud

-giroud scored on a free header in the 3rd minute. great ball by rosicky crossing it in, nice header, but the defending was awful. giroud didn't really do much else. his better attacking opportunities later came with him driving at the defense, which is not at all his strength and he looked bad doing it. didn't really have much to work with. this game has been the most like a regular match out of all of the exhibitions, and there isn't the requisite creativity with that set to unlock defenses that are compact.

-ryo scored a PK. probably wasn't a penalty, but the PK was a very nice finish. hasn't looked particularly good. just solid. only a couple of giveaways, but he hasn't looked 100%. he hesitated to use his burners on a couple of occasions. maybe he hasn't passed that mental hurdle after his ankle injury. he didn't drive at defenders or try and take anyone on, which was kind of disappointing. almost had a goal early on when a ball fell to him in the box. nice hit with his left, but just wide.

-ramsey is fricking everywhere. another great half for him. his motor is something else. continuing to show confidence on the ball.

-theo was kinda meh. had a chance to assist a wide open Giroud, shot himself and was saved. tried to dribble past a few guys, only really worked once (but that one time was quite pretty.

-baccy was our best CB again. Nagoya had 2 brilliant chances to score due to lax defending from Per and Jenks. Sagna had a great last ditch tackle to blow up the first, the second was an all time terrible scuff.

-nothing really else notable. we had a lot of possession. they were in a 4-4-2, maybe 4-4-1-1, but that generally meant 9 were behind the ball at most times. they did move forward well a few times and our breaks looked dangerous. otherwise, we didn't look particularly dangerous.